The 37-year-old Cunningham (24-2, 10 KOs) was scheduled to fight 29-year-old former undisputed middleweight titleholder Kelly Pavlik (37-2, 32 KOs) in August before Pavlik cited issues over money for pulling out of the bout.

The 33-year-old Taylor (28-4-1, 17 KOs) will face 24-year-old Jessie Nicklow (22-2-3, 8 KOs) of Baltimore, who is 3-0-1, with one knockout since being stopped in the fourth round by Fernando Guerrereo (21-1, 16 KOs) December of 2009.

A 28-year-old former Olympic bronze medalist, Dirrell (19-1, 13 KOs) was last in the ring against Abraham in March of last year.

That bout ended in controversy when Abraham punched Dirrell — who was far ahead on the cards — while he was down in the 11th round and was disqualified.

Dirrell is the older brother of unbeaten super middleweight contender Anthony Dirrell (23-0, 20 KOs), who will face Canadian southpaw Renan St. Juste (23-2-1, 15 KOs) on Dec. 2 in a WBC elminator bout for the right to challenge Froch.

A boxer-puncher, Anthony Dirrell returned to the ring in October of 2008 from a 26-month ring absence that resulted from a 2007 diagnosis of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Anthony was diagnosed shortly after he stopped James Hopkins in December 2006 and didn’t return to the ring until October 2008, when he decisioned Andy Mavros over four rounds.